Welcome to radiobio

RadioBio is a podcast where UC Merced biology graduate students talk with scientists about biological systems, from molecules to ecosystems.

RadioBio is now featured on Mariposa public radio (KRYZ LPFM 98.5 or online at kryzradio.org) Tuesdays at 5:30pm and Thursdays at 8am!

The secret lives of spiders. How do they attract attract a mate? Why are males and females different sizes? Does size really matter? We dive into the evolution of sexual dimorphism with Dr. Marie-Claire Chelini, University of California Presidential Post-doctoral Fellow. Listen to life

Radiobio podcasts

Season two

Art credit: Kinsey Brock

Dr. marie-Claire chelini

Have you ever wondered why males and females of a species are different sizes, shapes, and colors? Dr. Marie-Claire Chelini, University of California Presidential Post-doctoral Fellow, discusses her research on the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in crab spiders.

Art credit: Jackie Shay

Dr. zachary knight

Everyone knows what hunger feels like and understands the drive to seek food when hungry, but how does it work? Dr. Zachary Knight from UCSF joins RadioBio to discuss his work on understanding the pathways in the brain that sense hunger to drive behavior. Knight's work is revealing new insights into how the brain makes decisions about food, whether it looks tasty, and how hunger dictates behavior. These results could lead to important advances in our understanding of eating disorders.

Art credit: Kinsey Brock

Dr. Aaron Gitler

How do misfolded proteins cause human neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's? The Gitler lab at Stanford University studies the cellular biology underlying protein-misfolding diseases using the model organism yeast. Since dealing with misfolded proteins is an evolutionary problem, they hypothesize that the mechanisms employed to cope with misfoldings is likely conserved from yeast to humans. Gitler's long-term goal is to identify the critical genes and cellular pathways affected by misfolded human disease proteins.

Art credit: Kinsey Brock

Dr. Kathleen Ferris

Evolution; no small topic. Biologists can use a diverse array of systems to try to test evolutionary concepts. Some systems, like bacteria, are useful for looking at how evolution happens in real time, because they have such short generation times. Others, like animals, are much more difficult, but can allow us to ask really interesting questions like how behavior influences evolutionary processes. Dr. Kathleen Ferris asks questions about how organisms respond to stress in an evolutionary sense using two very different systems.

Season One

Art credit: Jeff Lauder

Dr. Dan Weinreich

Evolution is the process by which an organism becomes more fit for its environment. Often overlooked is how genes evolve over time to make smaller changes to increase the fitness of an organism. The Weinreich lab uses antibiotic resistance genes to study how a gene can evolve in bacteria to give rise to increased resistance. Today we are going to learn about the exciting world of gene evolution and discuss science philosophy with Dr. Weinreich himself.

Art credit: Kinsey Brock

Dr. Jack Sites Jr

Ever wonder where species come from? Do species even exist? Why do they matter? RadioBio discusses the speciation process through space and time with Dr. Jack Sites Jr. from Brigham Young University.

Art credit: Jeff Lauder and Kinsey Brock

Dr. Johanna Schmitt

Climate change can cause organisms to experience conditions they are not adapted to. How do these organisms respond and keep up with a changing world? Our guest this week studies how a small, ubiquitous plant responds to both natural and experimental climate change to learn about the potential pathways to adaptation plants may follow. Dr. Johanna Schmitt talks about climate change and the genetics of Arabadopsis thaliana, a tiny weed that can yield big insights into what the future holds for plants.

Art credit: Kinsey Brock

Dr. Rob Spitale

In many cells, RNA plays an essential role in regulation. Technological innovations are needed to further understand the role of RNA molecules in regulating basic biological function. Further, there is a need to expand the biochemistry toolkit to understand how large groups of RNAs are working in parallel inside living cells. The Spitale lab develops novel biochemical approaches toward understanding the role of RNA molecules in normal cell biology, as well as disease. Today we are going to learn about these new methods and tools in the RNA world from our guest Dr. Spitale himself.

Art Credit: Jeff Lauder

Dr. Chris Amemiya

What are coelacanths? Why would a marine fish contain chitin, a sugar that makes up the exoskeleton of insects? How do sharks sense fish? Why do we care about lamprey immune systems? Dr. Chris Amemiya from the Benaroya Research Institute studies these questions using comparative genomics. This research will improve our understanding of marine ecology as well as immunology, and holds implications for both the medical and biotechnical fields.

Art credit: Kinsey Brock

Dr. Emily Jane Mctavish

The famous geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky once said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." But how do we study evolution? How do we reconstruct evolutionary relationships amongst hundreds, even thousands of taxa across the tree of life? Can we really predict how fast species evolve? Dr. Emily Jane McTavish, Assistant Professor in the Quantitative & Systems Biology graduate group at the University of California, Merced, joins us to talk about her research as a phylogeneticist and computational biologist.

Art credit: Jeff Lauder

Dr. nathan lanning

Everyone knows the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. But what changes does it undergo to promote cancer and other diseases? We sit down with Dr. Nathan Lanning of California State University, Los Angeles and discuss his work regarding mitochondria dysfunction.